Not Much of a Role Model

It's always good to correct misinformation Ana even with regulations which are rarely enforced.

Jaxie it's certainly a sign of the times.

Do any other Gransnetters think, as I do, that this disgraceful scene would not have happened in the fifties and sixties? I wonder whether people these days take cues from the ghastly uncontrolled rantings we see on TV - Eastenders for example. It's all me, me, me and MY rights these days and kindness seems in short supply.

agree granarchist

IMO they don't need to be near the door, disabled spaces do

They DO need to be somewhere with a safe path to the door to keep small people safe, they do need bump space for getting in and out of cars, but they don't need to be right near the door and they're certainly not needed for older children who can learn to be sensible in car parks and are tall enough to be seen by reversing cars.

It's hilarous (except kinda not) that one of my local supermarkets actually has 2 P&C parking areas, one RIGHT by the door, and one away to the side but with a wide path to the entrance. The one to the side is almost almost empty while the P&C crazies in their people carriers practically play bumper-cars to get a space in the other P&C area near the door.

That's another reason why I avoid P&C (even when I had a new baby, actualy, ESPECIALLY when I had a new baby) - because the driving around P&C is so aggressive and sometimes downright dangerous.

As I said, P&C brings out the worst - avoid!

I really don't think parents of children who are perfectly capable of walking etc should use the parent and child anyway. Surely it should be for parents with prams/pushchairs and toddlers etc. Those who need the extra width to get babies in and out of child car seats. Once children are using proper seatbelts they are old enough to walk a few yards.

I was just quoting from the CAB website, Granarchist.

Ana - who is going to charge the £1000? - if it is on private land do supermarkets have the right to do that? I'm interested as I don't see how any fine could be enforced.

Perhaps you should put your friend straight, Daphne!

Just as well we didn't then or we'd have been in breach of regs wouldn't we.

It depends how long I am out of the car for. It's 50 miles to DDs and by then it's time we often need to stop for a quick pee. We often use a car park by a reservoir and at about 10am there are rarely any disabled drivers anywhere nearby. So we use those disabled spaces nearest to the toilets. I do not do it anywhere else.

That's as I understand it Ana, although TBH I think the ones who do it probably know that too and do it anyway

That's how I understood the blue badge regulations

That's interesting Ana

And it's up to you to make sure anyone driving you or in the car with you knows the rules.

According to the CAB, it's against the rules to use your badge to park if you’re not planning to leave the car, and you can be fined up to £1,000.

I sympathise Galen, DH would not ever let me use his badge or a disabled space unless he is getting out of the car although a disabled solicitor friend assures me it is legal and would not breach the regs of blue badge parking.
Hoist by his own petard though one day when I parked a bit away from Waitrose in a regular space, and while I was out of the car he decided he needed to go to the loo so had to walk all the way there and back.

Why do people do that? It also happens with P&C parking Galen - Mum or Dad, pops put and leaves the children in the back of the car -to beat each other to death.

If they're old enough to be left then they can be left in any old parking place. Same with disabled passengers who opt to stay in car.

I get cross when I see the disabled person staying in the car. Especially if it means I can't get a disabled space.[?.
It happens frequently. I need a wide space to get out of the cat and then have to get my scooter out with the hoist. It's such a palaver I very rarely visit a shop at all.
(Apart from the jewellery shops on the cruise liners)

never EVER park in P&C spaces if you can avoid it - that is where the worst of society linger! I swear!

I drive a small car and once used the P&C space and got blocked in by a woman in a people carrier (literally she parked across the back of my car) and got out and started shouting and ranting at me about the spaces being for parents! She didn't even take the time to notice my DDs in my small car! she just went off on one it was scary, she demanded I present my children to her, now at this point she was blocking us in and shouting and there was no way I was exposing my children to that sort of behaviour so I refused to get my children out of the car (you could see the top of their car seats anyway if you looked) and it became quite scary.

I now always park further away, "normal" car park users are much more civilised than the un-official self appointed P&C police

Oh and FYI, the woman in the people carrier yelling and ranting and physically blocking me and my 2 small kids: 1 kid in her car! A tween!

JackyB
Re: Your comment that 'the shouty woman' was 'just as much entitled/obliged to go to a disabled space as we were'....

As neither DH or myself is in any way disabled, if there was no 'parent and child' space available, we would not ever use a 'disabled' space.
My main issue with the other Gran was that she, for some weird reason, thought we should give up our 'parent and child' space to her, and move to a 'disabled' space, where, as we are not disabled, we would have been liable to get a £50-00 fine as that is the level which that particular car park has set 'improper use' fines at!

Firstly those spaces should be labelled 'carer and child' the relationship between the child and adult is irrelevant. Also I was told by shop manager that disabled and parent and child are interchangeable so both can use both. Our local farm equipment suppliers have 3 disabled parking spaces because they have to by law but to date (8 yrs on) not one disabled person has used them because, I imagine, limited numbers of disabled people buy combine harvesters etc. So we are told we can use them and of course would move immediately if the spaces were needed. One reason I think some people use these spaces is that new cars are much bigger these days and it can be impossible to open the doors when others are parked up against you. My daughter once had to wait over half an hour in the rain before she could get her baby into the car because she could not access the doors on either side of her car. She had been unable to find a wider space.

When I see some of the things on Gransnet that Grans have to put up with, I can well imagine that the shouty woman in the OP was having a bad day. Still, she obviously was not in the right. If all the parent and child spaces were full, she was just as much entitled/obliged to go to a disable place as you were.

However, I have no idea about the legal position on that one, but I can imagine that registered disabled people have more right to a disabled parking space than parents with children do, as the special parking spaces for them are probably only a courtesy measure.

My children also joke about parking on the parent+child spaces - it's especially giggle-worthy if they're driving the car.

Lozzamas
The supermarket manager to whom you spoke is exactly that, a supemarket manager.
He should stop offering 'free' legal advice, as he is completely wrong about 'disabled' and 'parent and child' parking spaces.
If a supermarket owns the car park, and they have designated spaces for use by a particular group, with a sign warning of penalties for wrongful use, they can, and indeed should, prosecute anyone using them without need.
You should, incidentally, park in the centre of your chosen parking space, as if you inadvertently put the tiniest portion of your car, even wing mirrors, over the dividing line, you can be prosecuted by whoever manages the car park as you would be deemed to have taken up two spaces!
People who 'want to cross the line with their door' are actually in the right, you are wrong parking hard up against the line. Maybe not legally wrong, but definitely inconsiderate.
Until we were expectant grandparents DH drove a two door Mercedes Coupé, so I fully understand the problems of small spaces and two door cars, but it's not a huge problem for passengers to get out before the driver pulls into a parking space.

I don't park in the specially designated spaces. However I find that the ordinary spaces have got smaller and what with columns and bollards proliforerating everywhere I can not park my 2 door car in a normal space and get people out of either side. I have to drop passengers off before parking and then back in with my car tight to to the line on the passanger side to be able to get out of my car. This has attracted abuse from people who want to cross the line with their door and want me to park plumb in the middle of a space. The store manager tells me that I should (I don't) park my car in the disabled or parent and toddler spaces as they are just extra wide spaces sited wherever the supermarket fancies and have no legal standing so they don't care or enforce them. He tells me they just called them wide spaces for a while for 4c4s, 2 door cars and people needing more space, but had to change the names as the parent and toddler group weren't sure where to park.... Although he tells me there is no such thing as parent and toddler spaces really, one store started it as a customer gimmick and the others have had to follow as its expected, but they are all just customer spaces, some wide and some standard in his book.

I have to admit to parking in a parent and child place when I'm with my 91 year old mum. She's very independent and insist on walking (with a stick) but it's very slow going. We need the extra space around the car so she can get in and out tho'.

Similar issues with disabled parking bays I'm afraid. But one thing I've noticed is how random it seems the siting of specific parking spaces and wondered if others had noticed too. The powers to be seem to have picked random blocks and designated them disabled or parent spaces yet often they bear no relation to actual needs! Today for example I went to Toys RUs for a gift for DGS birthday tomorrow and disabled parking was at the end of the building, further away from entrance but even further from the exit, yet walking is deemed too painful over 20m! Frankly a joke when "normal spaces" are right in front of the doors! ??